


Hot Chocolate

by melonbutterfly



Category: Star Trek RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-13
Updated: 2009-12-13
Packaged: 2017-10-13 00:09:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/130671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melonbutterfly/pseuds/melonbutterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Fusion with Cold Case)<br/>Some things don't go too smooth for Chris, but he's doing his best not to let them get to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hot Chocolate

Chris comes back from his lunch break that day to find his colleagues already looking busy; Karl and Rachel aren't even anywhere to be seen, and Zoe and John are looking through files while Anton is on the phone. It looks pretty much like they have a new case, but Chris hadn't been told about it, hadn't been there for the briefing, and that sends an uneasy feeling into the pit of his stomach. Something is wrong here, he can tell; he just doesn't know what.

He walks over to John. "What's going on? New case?" He wants to ask why the briefing had been without him, but he doesn't, not yet.

John looks at him and says, "Yes. The boss wants to see you." Zoe sends him a look full of pity or sympathy—Chris can't tell them apart, can't stand either—and he kind of wants to punch her. He sees this as progress, emancipation; he doesn't not punch her because she is a girl, but because it's not really an impulse, not really something he wants to do. Besides, if he did, she'd kick his ass.

Without another word, he turns on his heels and stalks into JJ's office, closing the door behind himself none-too-gently, and JJ takes one look at him and closes the binds. Chris doesn't even give him a chance to say something, just bursts out with what is on his mind right now (an impulse he can choose to suppress, but doesn't right now); "What the fuck, JJ?! Is this your subtle way of telling me my work sucks and I should go look for another department?" It's a thought he can barely bear; leaving Homicide Squad, going to work something else instead of digging up old cases—this is his true calling, what he has been made to do, and he can't imagine doing anything else.

JJ looks a mix between startled and stricken, and he says, "Chris, no, we just think you'd better not work on this one-"

Chris interrupts him by slamming his hands on the table. " _Why?_ " And JJ better not tell him it's _still_ because of that shooting, because he's been shot; he doesn't need to be patronised, doesn't need to be _protected_. He's been back at work for two months now, and he had thought people had finally calmed down.

JJ takes a breath, shifts, doesn't look at him as he says, "There's been this murder in the late sixties. Bias Crime. This man was found bashed to death by an unknown number of attackers."

"Yeah, so?"

His boss still won't look at him, and Chris is starting to get a really bad feeling about it. "The man was openly homosexual. This wasn't my decision, Chris," he hastily says, louder to drone out the protest that is immediately on Chris' lips. "And you know I would never decide this kind of thing. But the bosses told me you shouldn't work this case, and there isn't a damn thing I can do about it." He suddenly looks angry himself. "I tried, Chris, but they're my bosses, and I've got to follow their orders. I told them you've been gay all your life and it didn't influence you before, so why should it now, but they wouldn't listen."

"So what do you want me to do?", Chris asked, all coiled anger and tension and repressed violence. "Stop seeing Zach? Get myself some kind of beard? Pretend all my life I'm something I'm not just so they'll _allow_ me to do my job?"

"No, of course not," JJ says, suddenly tired, slumping against his desk. He lowers his head and rubbed his forehead in a way he only ever does when he is defeated in a way different than physically, and Chris suddenly loses a lot of his self-righteous drive as he realises that this isn't only his fight, that JJ is fighting with him—in front of him, actually. His boss looks up, and there is still defeat on his face, but also a fire in his eyes, a determination. "Chris, you're dating an attorney. They won't get away with this, no way. You go take a couple of days of paid leave like they told me you should, and when you come back, I'll have a plan."

Chris took a deep breath. "I'm not going to let you do this on your own, JJ. This is more my fight than yours."

"It's not. Don't you see it? You're _my_ employee, they have no right to intervene. They're not only questioning your judgement, they're also questioning mine, and I won't have it." Suddenly, JJ grinned; slightly sardonic, but definitely his grin. "Don't worry; I'll leave more than enough of work for you two as well, so don't enjoy your free days _too_ much."

Chris hesitates for a moment, not knowing whether he should allow the mood to shift, but in the end he knows it's not JJ's fault, that there's nothing either of them can do against it at the moment. He'll just have to take it and go home, regroup so to speak until they're able to do something against it. So he sighs, letting JJ know that this is really not what he actually wants to do right now, but returns the grin—though weakly—before mock-saluting and turning to leave. "I'll call you," JJ calls after him, and Chris waves on the way out. He ignores his colleagues, who, he now knows, must know why he wasn't there for the briefing and wasn't going to work with them on the case either, and makes his way home.

Noah is the first one to greet him, all enthusiastic and happy like the big puppy he is (Chris is firmly convinced that dogs don't grow up, they just get bigger, is all), and then Zach stands in the doorway to the living room, looking all frazzled and puzzled like he usually does when he's interrupted in the middle of work. So, apparently he has been working from home for a while already; Chris gets filled with dread and he suddenly, fiercely hopes Zach isn't home for the very same reason he is.

"Hey," Zach says while walking over to him for a kiss, "you're early. Everything alright?"

"Not really," Chris replies, wraps his arms around Zach tightly and buries his face in his shoulder. They have been together for more than a year already and have moved in together three months ago, just a little more than a month before Chris got shot in his left thigh, though of course they didn't know that until it happened. It's the best thing that has ever happened to Chris.

"Chris?", Zach asks, starting to sound worried, and Chris knows he's now getting completely out of his work-headspace, concentrating only on him. And Chris also knows this will probably ruin the day for Zach just like it has for him, but he really can't not tell him just to protect him; besides, this concerns them both.

By the time Chris has finished telling him the story, a muscle in Zach's jaw is twitching, and he looks as frustrated and resigned and angry as Chris feels. This is not the first time they encounter homophobia—especially among policemen—but that doesn't make it more pleasant. Thankfully, at least Zach had a normal day; he is home already because one of his appointments at court got postponed, and his other stuff he can do from home just as well.

They decide not to dwell on it, though. That's the only acceptable way to react to these things, as long as there isn't anything else to do; not let them get to you. So they go into the kitchen and drink hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows and it's going to clog up their arteries and they're going to die a painful death, Zach says, but he drinks two cups just like Chris does, who tells him with relish that it'll be a great way going down.

And then, just to spite everyone, Zach fucks Chris on the kitchen table, nice and slow, and Chris says it's an even greater way going down, and he's never giving this up ever, not even for his job. He'll become a kept man if there's nothing else for him before he lets Zach, let's this go. And Zach smiles and tells him that in that case, he'll have to learn how to cook healthily and wear that pink apron with the tacky "Kiss the Cook" print he got as a prank for his birthday, and great Zach every day naked and with a blow job when he comes home from work.

Chris rolls his eyes and tells Zach to go back to said work, and because Zach doesn't bother to get dressed and looks ridiculously hot wearing glasses and nothing else, sitting in the armchair and reading some kind of file, Chris doesn't give him an hour before he goes to ride him. Not that Zach complains.


End file.
